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Look Out for Those Wet Weather Pests

By Chris Williams on July 8, 2013.

While the western U.S. is suffering yet another drought, many of us in the Northeast have the opposite problem. We have put up with an extended period of sogginess. Lots of rain in the last few weeks has delayed home improvement projects and turned gardens to mush.

When it’s this wet outside, many outdoor pests try to move indoors to escape their too-wet outdoor environment. You may have already noticed a migration of earwigs, millipedes, centipedes, crickets, sowbugs, pillbugs, or ground beetles in your home, especially on the lower level. These pests normally live around the foundation of your home, often in mulch or under stones or wood on the ground. But when their hiding places flood, they will head for higher, drier ground. Some of them, like millipedes, even migrate in groups.

Foundation Invaders: What You Should Do Now

Check around doors and windows for gaps that pests can squeeze through. If your doors, especially the garage door, don’t have thresholds or sweeps at the bottom, now is a good time to install them. Install weatherproofing strips along the sides of door jambs so there is a tight, pest-proof seal. Make sure that foundation vents are screened. If you’re experiencing a serious invasion of outdoor pests, have a pest control company treat outside around the foundation, especially around exterior doors, to keep pests out.

You can also expect all this rain to leave not only lots of puddles, but standing water in places where there is normally not standing water. And you know what that means— mosquitoes!

Mosquito Breeding: What You Should Do Now

Those puddles in your yard pinpoint areas that need re-grading or draining. Make sure roof gutters are clean and flowing freely and that downspouts drain away from the house with no low spots. Check around your property for containers that are holding rainwater like buckets, wheelbarrows, tires, boats, kiddie pools, paint cans, even tarps. Mosquitoes lay eggs in this standing water—dump it out.